Mt. McKinley Expedition: Dave Hahn & Team Ready to Fly

Our climb has had a flawless beginning thus far. True, we haven’t actually hoisted a pack, walked uphill or even set foot on a glacier yet, but that will all come soon enough.

First things first… yesterday the climbing team came together down in Anchorage and shuttled on up to Talkeetna. Today was actually jam-packed with orienting provisioning and preparing for our climb. If all goes well, we hope that K2 Aviation will be able to fly us on to the Kahiltna Glacier tomorrow morning. It seems the weather has been a little sloppy of late, although it did break long enough today for planes to get in and out of Kahiltna Basecamp a few times, retrieving the RMI team led by Jake Beren. It was great to chat with his guides and climbers as to current conditions on the hill. Combined with the briefing we received from the National Park Service this morning and what we’ve gathered from other acquaintances in the streets and eateries of Talkeetna throughout the day, we are feeling quite knowledgeable as to what we may find. Next step is to go and see for ourselves. We had a fine dinner at the busy West Rib Pub before retiring -with fingers crossed for easy flying conditions- to our comfy beds in the Talkeetna Motel.